


The Ballad of Blood-Eye

by Megaptera



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: 3dnpc - Freeform, Gen, Headcanon, Interesting NPCs Mod
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-18
Updated: 2015-09-18
Packaged: 2018-04-21 07:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4820495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megaptera/pseuds/Megaptera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Raynes discovers an unexpectedly awkward consequence of vigilantism.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ballad of Blood-Eye

**Author's Note:**

> Headcanon notes: Raynes wears an eyepatch now, and Constance lets the kids out to play sometimes, now that she runs the orphanage.
> 
> CAST OF CHARACTERS
> 
> HELEDIR, Altmer, fire-focused destruct-o-mage, and Dragonborn  
> RAYNES, dangerous Dunmer with a heart of… well, we think there’s a heart in there somewhere  
> RUNA, swashbuckling seven-year-old and adorable orphan  
> CONSTANCE, nervous nanny

“I’ll wait out here.” Heledir gestures to the courtyard of Riften’s keep. “I’m… not sure the Jarl is very happy with me at the moment.”

Raynes smirks a bit as he mounts the steps to the great hall, bounty note in hand. Heledir ducks under a stone arch and strolls around the walled yard, peering academically at the dried-up plants in the garden beds, occasionally slipping an interesting flower or leaf into the pocket of his robes, and enjoying the last of the day’s warmth.

“Unhand them, pirate, or I’ll wear your ears for a necklace!” Young Runa leaps out from behind a pillar, brandishing a wooden weapon.

“Stars, it’s an ambush!” cries Heledir, raising his hands in surrender, at the same moment Runa realizes he is not the pirate she’s looking for.

Runa blushes and stammers, “Sorry, sir, I thought you were Samuel.”

“Samuel’s a pirate? Good to know. And… wait, who are you supposed to be..?” He trails off as he takes in her ragtag costume: two small wooden play-knives, and a lopsided rag tied around her head, pulled down over one eye.

“I’m Blood-Eye! It’s my turn because Hroar was yesterday.” At the grownup’s wide-eyed incomprehension she continues, “Wait, you don’t know about Blood-Eye.”

Heledir shakes his head slowly and sat down on a low stone wall. “I might know this story, under another name. Can you tell it to me?” 

“Well… he’s an elf, but not like you, he’s a dark elf. And he only has one eye and it’s blood red and he has a bandage over the other one. And he has two daggers and he sneaks up on pirates and slits their throats in the middle of the night.” She illustrates this last point with both her blades, holding them crossed in the air in front of her and then jerking them sideways and downwards with a “hhhhrrrrrrrkkkk” sound.

“Goodness. He sounds terrifying.”

“Yeah, but he’s the good guy! The pirates steal kids to be their slaves and Blood-Eye saves them.”

“Where did you hear this story?”

“Berit told it to us. Well, she didn’t tell it because she couldn’t talk. She didn’t have a tongue. She drew pictures of Blood-Eye saving her from the pirates and then we just made up more stories. She died, though. She was really sick. We hid the pictures under our beds but then Grelod found them and threw them in the fire.”

Above them, the door to the great hall creaks open and thuds shut. Raynes descends the steps, tucking a small bag of coin into his belt. He looks around for Heledir, and freezes when he catches sight of the girl. 

Runa looks up at him and Heledir is afraid she’s about to either burst into tears or wet herself. But she shoves the bandage up off her right eye with the hilt of one of her toy knives, and then pulls it off completely and stuffs it into her apron pocket, suddenly more self-conscious than afraid.

“Runa!” a voice calls. Constance is hurrying across the market square towards them, nervous in the lengthening shadows that herald Riften’s treacherous night. The girl snaps out of her stunned state and starts towards Constance, then remembers her manners and drops a hasty curtsey to her elders. “I have to go in, it’s getting dark.” She takes a few steps, then looks back and flashes a breathless grin at Raynes before running to meet Constance.

Runa’s excited chatter and Constance’s anxious admonishments fade into the distance:

“Runa, you can’t hang around these mercenaries and bounty-hunters.”

“But Miss Constance, look! It’s Blood-Eye!”

“Blood-Eye isn’t real. You have no idea who that is. He might drag you off and sell you to pirates himself.”

Raynes watches them go, as still and keen-eyed as if he were stalking bandits in the wilderness. Heledir rises to his feet and dusts off his robes, and claps a hand on his comrade’s shoulder, briefly. “Come on. We should go if we’re going to get to Shor’s Stone by dark.”

They ride two abreast, and Raynes is silent, almost distracted.

“I think that Blood-Eye fellow is their hero,” Heledir says gently. Raynes gives him a haunted look, and lets out a heavy breath, and turns his attention back to the road. After a little ways he mutters, “They have no idea.”

“Of course not.”

After another few miles, Heledir muses, “I wonder if he has a sidekick.”

This time, Raynes flashes him a feral grin in the shadows. “They’re not old enough to read _those_ stories.”


End file.
